


fault and failure

by Anonymous



Series: a moment, prompted [3]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, post-Godhome ending, presumably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26091883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: It must be difficult, after so long, to accept that they are anything but to blame.
Relationships: The Hollow Knight | Pure Vessel & The Knight
Series: a moment, prompted [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2186166
Kudos: 76
Collections: Anonymous





	fault and failure

**Author's Note:**

> Originally for the prompt "100 words of comfort being rejected by the comforted" on FFA.

_You're safe now,_ Ghost whispers, and for once, anyone else can hear. Their dreamworld, now veined with shadow, has given them an echo of the voice the king once stole. _She can't hurt you anymore. It's over._  
  
They climb up into their sibling's lap and pat their knee. It's so much larger than any other sibling's is, anymore. All the growth they were denied, forced upon a child who never asked for it. Ghost wonders if their big sibling is perhaps younger than they are, their mind stunted as much as Ghost's own body.  
  
Their sibling sits very still, and does not move. They do not reply. Inside their head, beneath their shell, Ghost can hear something churning with regrets.  
  
Suddenly, Ghost is tumbling to the ground, and their sibling is standing again, towering over them momentarily before hunching into that clumsy off-balance stance. They're posed to take off, though the dream has nowhere to run to.  
  
_I have failed,_ the Hollow Knight announces at last. Their voice, fragile and new, already threatens to crack. The statement sounds like a challenge, but no unsheathed nail accompanies it.  
  
_It doesn't matter!_ Ghost tells them, balling their nubby hands into fists. _It was awful and you didn't choose to, and it was hurting you! And it's over now! We killed her!_  
  
The Hollow Knight shakes their head, once. The motion is so small Ghost almost can't tell. They might have just twitched.  
  
The same statement, again. _I have failed._ The Hollow Knight does not sit down, or continue, or do anything else at all. Ghost isn't sure they even breathe.  
  
Ghost reaches out, stepping forward. They do not know very well, how to comfort people, but they know even less how to comfort this strange, angry version of the little sibling they followed to the top of the Abyss so long ago.  
  
(Hornet was easier, in a way. They only had to sit beside her and let her be. There was no obligation to say anything kind; she had no expectations from her mother's killer.)  
  
They get one, two, three steps and their sibling flinches back. The sea ripples beneath them both, around the platforms. Ghost presses onward, four steps, five, and is matched with a shaky backstep, six, seven, and their sibling is cornered at the edge of a precipice over the memory of the Abyss, recreated within the dream.  
  
Normally, when an enemy retreats, Ghost presses on closer into fighting range. But this is not a battle, and they mean their sibling no harm, so they try the opposite instead and back away.  
  
The Hollow Knight does not come back any closer again. They stand vigil at the edge, only moving to turn and gaze out into the dark mist beyond. Ghost wants to join them, to reach up on toe-tips and take their hand and drag them back inland (they don't want to see another sibling fall, ever again, even dreaming), but they already know it won't work. They're not even strong enough, anyway. Not unless they cheat, and their little vessel body is such a pain to rebuild.  
  
Their sibling is stubborn, but Ghost is stubborner. They wait until the Hollow Knight is done sulking and self-flagellating for the night, and resolve to try again in the next.


End file.
